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Robertson, William:. The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. with a View of the Progress of Society in Europe from the Subversion of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Sixteenth Century.. London: W. Sreahan, T. Cadell and Edinburgh: J. Balfour A New edition 1782., 1782.

Price: US$142.95 + shipping

Description: In four volumes, Vol. I, xv+372 pp. frontispiece portrait of the author, Vol. II, 376 pp. frontispiece, Vol. III, 460 pp. frontispiece, Vol. IV, 335 pp.+index and frontispiece. Bears the bookplate of Henry Savage Yeames, a contemporary diplomat whose papers are in the Public Record Office London. Full polished calf, six panelled spine with original spine labels and highly decorative gilt design, some minor scuffing, edgewear, corners bumped, gilding has minor fading here and there but is otherwise in quite fresh condition given its age, some scattered foxing in vol III internally very bright, tight and clean, a handsome set of a classic text.

Seller: Saintfield Antiques & Fine Books, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

ROBERTSON, William. HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.. , 1782.

Price: US$375.00 + shipping

Description: ROBERTSON, William. HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. With a view of the progress of society in Europe from the subversion of the Roman Empire, to the beginning of the Sixteenth Century. In four volumes. A New edition. Vol. I(-IV). London: Printed for W. Strahan; T. Cadell, in the Strand; and J. Balfour at Edinburgh. 1782. Later printing. Engraved frontispiece in each volume. Four 8vo. volumes: 479, + [20] index; [4],376; [4],460; [4],335, + [84] pp. index. Contemporary bindings of full calf, with a red morocco label and decorative gilt rules to spines. Bookplate of Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), U. S. Senator from Massachusetts, at front pastedowns; ink ownership stamp of his great-grandfather, George Cabot (1752-1823), also U. S. Senator from Massachusetts and Federalist sage. A very good set overall. Text is mostly clean; although vols. 1 & 3 each have a few gatherings with heavy foxing. The bindings are edgeworn, darkened at spines and perimeters, with joints cracked and tender; spine labels are chipped with some loss to letters. Robertson (1721-1793), along with David Hume and Edward Gibbon, was one of the three great British historians of the eighteenth century, and Charles V is generally regarded as his masterpiece. (DNB; CBEL II).

Seller: Boston Book Company, Inc. ABAA, Boston, MA, U.S.A.

JAMES V and JAMES I, Kings of Scotland.. TWO ANCIENT SCOTTISH POEMS; The Gaberlunzie-Man, and Christ's Kirk on the Green. With notes and observations. By John Callander, esq. of Craigforth. Edinburgh: printed by J. Robertson. Sold by J. Balfour, W. Creech, and C. Elliot, Edinburgh [etc].1782. [with:] DAVIDSON, David. THOUGHTS ON THE SEASONS &C. partly in the Scottish dialect. London: printed for the author; and sold by J. Murray. and W. Creech, Edinburgh. 1789. [with:] [GRAHAME, James.] POEMS, IN ENGLISH, SCOTCH, AND LATIN. Paisley: printed by J. Neilson, for the author. 1794. [with:] ALVES, Robert. POEMS.. Edinburgh: printed for the author. Sold by William Creech Edinburgh; and T. Cadell London, 1782.

Price: US$1624.43 + shipping

Description: Four works in one volume, 8vo, pp. [ii], ii, '179' (misnumbered for 193); viii, 189, [1] errata; 118, [121]-140 (as printed: no text lost despite error in pagination); viii, 243, [1] errata; fine copies bound together in contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine with morocco label ('Miscellanies'), with stencil initial 'F' below (perhaps the sixth in a series of such volumes). A fine collective volume from the library of the judge and author Alexander Fraser Tytler, with his signature on the first title page, a list of the contents in his hand and notes on three of the four title pages. Tytler (1747-1813) was the son of the historian William Tytler but trained as a lawyer, rising to become a Lord of Session as Lord Woodhouselee (1802). But he was passionately attached to Scottish literature and history, and alongside his legal career was also Professor of Universal History at Edinburgh from 1780 onwards. This volume perfectly reflects his antiquarian interests in all aspects of Scottish literature. The first is a collection of two old poems usually attributed to two kings of Scotland, James V (1512-42) and James I (1394-1437): the edition is the first of either poem with any pretensions to scholarship. It would have been of particular interest to A.F. Tytler because the following year his father produced an edition of James I's poetry (Edinburgh, Balfour, 1783), and it is perhaps no surprise that Tytler was able to add to the title page that Callander's co-editor was David Doig (1719-1800), the learned schoolmaster of Stirling, who contributed much of the annotation to the first poem. The second work is easily the rarest in the volume: Davidson's Thoughts on the Seasons is recorded by ESTC online in only four copies, with none at the British Library and only one outside Britain (at UCLA). Tytler has read and thought about this book, because he has annotated the title page: 'A work of very considerable merit & of original genius. The Dialect is that of Kirkcudbright or Galloway'. Written in blank verse and in four books, one for each season (Davidson is conscious of treading in Thomson's footsteps), the poetry is intended 'to copy Nature', as the author says in his preface; there is also a glossary of dialect words at the very end, and a poem to 'William Burney, a brother poet'. The book was published by John Murray in London, who retained his links with Scottish authors. See Zachs, The first John Murray (1998), checklist item 713. The third work is the first publication of the advocate and poet James Grahame (1765-1811), who later impressed Walter Scott with his poem The Sabbath. ESTC lists a prior edition of the preceding year, with the imprint 'London: printed in the year 1793', and extending to 131pp only - just one copy is listed, at the University of British Columbia. It seems certain that the present edition is a reissue rather than a reprint, because despite the fact that it extends to 140pp, the list of contents only takes us as far as p. 130. To make this reissue, the final seven leaves (pp. 119-[132]) of the original edition must have been cancelled, and ten more leaves printed, Q-R4 and S2 - but these were mispaginated, beginning on p. 121 instead of 119. The final work in the volume is by Robert Alves (1745-94), friend of James Beattie, whom he met when he was educated at the Marischal College, Aberdeen: it is one of his few publications.

Seller: Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB, Henley-on-Thames, OXON, United Kingdom

SAMUEL DE BUTTS (b. 1756, Ireland - d. 1814, Mt. Welby, Oxon Hill/Washington D.C., Physician and first to take the deButts Family to the U.S. in 1791, soon followed by his Brother John; Uncle and Teacher of John's Son Elisha DeButts, 1773–1831, Founder of the 'University of Maryland School of Medicine'; Ancestor of Harry Ashby DeButts, 1895-1983, President of Southern Railway in the 1950ies, and of John D. deButts, 1915–1986, CEO of AT&T in the 1970ies):. TENTAMEN INAUGURALE, QUOSDAM, AERIS IN CORPUS HUMANUM EFFECTUS, AMPLECTENS. - Quod, annuente summo numine, Ex Auctoritate Reverendi admodum Viri D. Gulielmi Robertson, S.S.T.P. Academiae Edinburgenae praefecti; nec non Amplissimi Senatus Academici consensu, Et nobilissimae Facultatis Medicae decreto, PRO GRADU DOCTORATUS, SUMMISQUE IN MEDICINA HONORIBUS ET PRIVILEGIIS RITE ET LEGITIME CONSEQUENDIS; Eruditorum examini subjicit, SAMUEL DE BUTTS, HIBERNUS, A.B. TRIN. COLL. DUB. Soc. Reg. Med. Edin. Soc. Extraord. nec non Soc. Phys. Soc. AD DIEM 12. SEPTEMBRIS, HORA LOCOQUE SOLITIS. Edinburgi: Apud Balfour et Smellie, Academiae Typographos, M.DCC.LXXXII. --- DEBUTTS' ORIGINAL DOCTORAL THESIS. . . [quam]. Edinburgh, Balfour and Smellie, 1782. [Edinborough], 1782.

Price: US$1837.64 + shipping

Description: 41 pages (including singleside printed title- and dedication-sheets), 3 blank pages (incl. last blank sheet); all on untrimmed sheets, top of last 2 unopened. - 5 sewn layers of 4 sheets each, with title- and dedication-sheet tipped-on the first layer, aparently as published; 8vo.(ca. 22 x 15 cm). *** RARE ORIGINAL OF DE BUTTS' (DeButts') DOCTORAL THESIS AT EDINBURGH-UNIVERSITY during the highest point in its history under the great Scottish historian William Robertson (1721-1793), STRING-STAPLED ORIGINAL. - De Butts emigrated to the United States in 1791 and finally purchased and resided at Mt. Welby (named after his wife) now part of the Oxon Cove and Oxon Hill National Park. The financial quarrel between the previous and the new owner is expressed in De Butts' letter to Thomas Jefferson - who was acquainted with both - a few weeks after the end his U.S.-Presidency, now held by the U.S. National Archives. Oxon Hill National Park Services still honours De Butts and his wife on a memory plate with their portraits by famous Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770-1852) whose portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson became iconic. --- Titlepage bottom right with ink-insciption of the period ''fax bona Duq.''(or so), text with some - mostly shallow - ink-sidelines and one short -annotation, according to the latter apparently from the same hand as on the titlepage; else minimally used. - A BEAUTIFUL COPY OF THE FRAGILE PUBLICATION. . .

Seller: C O - L I B R I , Bremen - Berlin ; Deutschland / Germany ., Berlin, Germany